Samsung A51 is the King of Android Phones in Q1 2020

Xiaomi, Samsung battle it out

Strategy Analytics has released the names of the bestselling Android phones in the first quarter of 2020. The period has seen relatively slow growth because its final weeks were hit by lockdowns related to the Covid-19 crisis, but the names of the leading phones in this time do make for some very interesting reading. There are some surprising names in there, and some very notable absentees too!

Galaxy A51 is the king!

The Samsung Galaxy A51 was the highest selling Android phone of Q1 2020 with 6 million units sold, giving it a market share of 2.3 percent on its own steam. To get an idea of how big that figure is, just consider the fact that as per IDC, Samsung shipped a total of 5.1 million units in India in the same period. So the Galaxy A51 sold more units on its own globally than all the Samsung smartphones sold in India in the same period. Given its price tag of almost USD 330, that is a bit of a surprise, as it was just above what many consider to be the mid-segment.

Galaxy S20+ is the premium top dog

Samsung’s Galaxy S20 series might have had mixed reviews, but in terms of sales, its Galaxy S 20+ was the highest-selling premium Android device of the first quarter and the third highest-selling overall. It ran up a 1.7 percent share of the market in this time, which would translate into sales of around 4.4 million units. Formidable when you consider the price segment it was operating in, close to USD 1000.

It’s a Samsung show

The report named the six highest-selling Android devices of Q1 2020, and of these four were from Samsung. The Galaxy A51 was of course right on top of the list, and the S20+ was in third place, while also in the list were the Galaxy A10s at fourth place (1.6 percent) and the Galaxy A20s in sixth place (1.4 percent). Three of the four phones in the top six came from Samsung’s A-series.

Xiaomi is all eights!

If four of the top six best selling Android phones of Q1 2020 are from Samsung, the other two are fro Xiaomi. The budget-friendly Redmi 8 is at the second sport with a 1.9 percent share (roughly close to 5 million units) and on the fifth place is the Redmi Note 8, which has a 1.6 percent share, the same as the Galaxy A10s, although the report mentions the Galaxy A10s first (could be a case of alphabetical order).

An interesting composition – a bit of premium, mid and budget

The top six Android phones of the Q1 2020 do not really reflect any standard trend. Two of these – the Samsung Galaxy A10s and the Redmi 8 are absolutely in the budget category at close to USD 100-110. The Galaxy A20s and the Redmi Note 8, on the other hand, are in the mid-segment in the USD 150-175 range. The presence of these devices is not that surprising, but the Galaxy A51 with its roughly USD 330 price tag at the top shows that there are volumes even at the higher end of the mid-segment. Then there is the S20+, of which more in the next point.

Hope for OnePlus?

Interestingly, the prices of five of the phones of the top six combined are lesser than that of the Galaxy S20+, which retails for close to USD 1000. This clearly shows that there are takers aplenty even for premium high-end devices – the S20+ was only slightly behind the Redmi 8 and actually outsold the Redmi Note 8. All of which should give the likes of OnePlus some hope. The brand took some heat for its premium pricing, but the figures indicate that there is a market out there for premium devices too!

Where are the other brands?

As always, the devices not on the list are almost as noteworthy as those on them. It is interesting to observe that of the top five smartphone brands of Q1 2020 as per the same agency, Oppo and Huawei have no representation whatsoever in the top-selling models – Apple, of course, cannot be counted as it makes no Android devices. There is no sign also of the likes of OnePlus, Motorola, Nokia, Vivo, or Realme. All of which would indicate a very clustered market around the 1.5 percent share mark.

Android totally rules smartphones

As per the report, 86 percent of the smartphones sold in the first quarter of 2020 were Android smartphones. The remaining 14 percent, of course, are iOS phones, or iPhones. Interestingly, the share of iPhones has gone up slightly as compared to the same period of 2019, where it was 13 percent. No threat to Android on a global scale though.